There's a behind-the-scenes story about making LotR. During the filming of Balin's tomb, an employee commented, "One of the dwarf-language writings on the wall says, 'John was here'." The set-design people freaked out and spent hours going through the scene freeze-frame, translating every sentence from dwarf-speak to English.

Finally they went to that guy and insisted, "Show us where it says, 'John was here' in dwarf-ish!" He then looked stricken and said, "Um, I was just joking."

Contrast this passion to Harry Potter. The entire theme of the book is acceptance of people different from yourself. The book keeps reiterating: don't discriminate against the giants, or the house-elves, or Muggles. Don't hate Snape just because he's so kooky. Don't judge a book by its cover.

Then what happens in the final movie? There's an added scene where someone asks McGonagall, "Where should Slytherin House go?" and she says, "Put them all in the dungeon."

Just imprison an entire group of people in the dungeon for no reason? Go against one of the core principles of the book?

Peter Jackson would never have let that happen.

Another example is that Harry and Voldemort grapple in the movie for minutes, whereas the book makes it clear that Voldemort is far more powerful but Harry wins through love and self-sacrifice.

I've remembered this through the years, and it gives me assurance when I'm working on a product. I know that if I love it, that will shine through. Users will be able to tell, and be more likely to love it too.

About Me

I live in San Francisco. I am the founder and CEO of Evertoon. Previously I was CTO of Minted, cofounder of Google Desktop, founder of Google Lively, and an engineering leader on Gmail Ads and Microsoft Flight Simulator. I have an awesome little brother. My name is pronounced like "Vivian" with N's.
I'm on twitter at twitter.com/niniane.